Cyclopaedia Of The Diseases Of Children Medical And Surgical Vol V Supplement PDF Download

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1899 edition. Excerpt: ...has not its usual interest in diversions or play. Corresponding with the extent of the interference with nutrition, the muscles are flabby and waste, the fat disappears, and anaemia develops. When the dilatation is but slight, sufficient t nourishment is furnished the body to prevent these general symptoms from attaining any great gravity, but when the food passes into the intestines in but small amounts, ill digested and fermenting or putrefying, and very little is absorbed by the stomach itself, the general bodily nutrition suffers to such a degree as to suggest at'once the existence of some grave constitutional disease. The child emaciates greatly, its look grows haggard and wan, and the skin is pale or sallow and forms wrinkles or folds. The circulation is sluggish, and the extremities are often cool and dusky. In these advanced cases a frequent and peculiar symptom is the dryness of the skin, often accompanied by a brawny desquamation of the superficial epithelium, which is to be referred to the insufficient supply of fluid to the tissues. Von Mering has taught us that the healthy stomach absorbs little water. Hence little absorption can be expected from a dilated organ, and, since the ability to propel sufficient fluids into the intestine is absent, dryness of all the tissues results. To this insufficiency of fluid and the poor circulation are to be referred the numbness of extremities, formication, and muscular cramps often complained of in severe cases. Older children, like adults, are very apt to complain of headache, which is often very persistent and distressing, and vertigo is common, coming on in distinct attacks or becoming so constant that uncertainty accompanies all movements. This is by no means limited to the graver...